1992 World Series
The 1992 World Series was the first Series ever played outside of the United States of America. It pitted the American League champion Toronto Blue Jays against the National League champion Atlanta Braves. Toronto defeated Atlanta, 4 games to 2, marking the first time a non-United States based team ever won the World Series. A faux pas occurred when a United States Marine Corps color guard erroneously displayed the Canadian flag upside down during the opening ceremony of the second game.Canada / Baseball World Series / Flag NBC News broadcast from the Vanderbilt Television News Archive The Corps apologized for the error and took pains to carry the flag properly prior to Game 3 in Toronto after insisting that they would be honored to do so. Background The Blue Jays made it to the Series after beating the Oakland Athletics in six games in the American League Championship Series. The Braves were in their second consecutive series after again knocking off the Pittsburgh Pirates in seven games in the National League Championship Series. Summary AL Toronto Blue Jays (4) vs NL Atlanta Braves (2) Matchups Game 1 Saturday, October 17, 1992 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia Braves fans had plenty to worry about in regard to both starting pitchers. Tom Glavine's post-season career had been less than stellar, including giving up eight runs in the second inning of Game 6 of the NLCS against Pittsburgh. Entering game one, Glavine's career post-season record was 1-5 despite two starts where he had pitched complete games and only given up one run each time. Glavine was 0-2 in those starts. Jack Morris had shut the Braves out for ten innings in the last game of the 1991 World Series with the Twins and won the MVP. Morris, in fact, shut the Braves out for five innings to stretch his shutout string over Atlanta to fifteen innings. Glavine gave up a Joe Carter homer in the fourth. But with two outs in the sixth, catcher Damon Berryhill golfed a Morris pitch over the right-field wall for a three-run homer that was all Atlanta needed to win game one by the score of 3-1. Glavine went the distance for the victory. In taking the loss, Morris suffered his first career World Series defeat in his sixth start, with one no-decision. It would not be his last. Game 2 Sunday, October 18, 1992 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia Before the game started, during the performance of the National Anthems of the United States and Canada, the U.S. Marine Corps Color Guard accidentally flew the flag of Canada upside down. On top of that, Canadian rock/country musician Tom Cochrane sang the Canadian national anthem incorrectly. The section of the song which is to be sung as "...from far and wide, oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee..." was instead sung as follows: "...oh Canada, we stand on guard, we stand on guard for thee..." (Cochrane was actually singing the pre-1980 words for O Canada). The pitching match-up featured former Met David Cone, acquired by the Jays in an August trade, against the Braves' John Smoltz, the man who had beaten Cone out for the NL strikeout title by one (because Cone was traded to the American League). Cone got two hits, only the second and third hits by AL pitchers in the Series since 1979, and pitched well, but he left the game trailing 3-2 and was replaced by David Wells. A controversial call benefited the Braves. In the top of the fourth inning, with two out and Roberto Alomar on third, John Smoltz pitched a ball in the dirt to John Olerud, which got away from catcher Damon Berryhill. Alomar decided to run home. The ball rolled only about 10-15 feet away from the plate, and Berryhill fielded the ball and threw it to Smoltz who ran over from the mound to cover the plate. Umpire Mike Reilly called Alomar out, ending the inning (even though replays during the CBS telecast clearly showed the sliding Alomar touch the plate before Smoltz applied the tag). The score remained 1-0 after the fourth and eventually became 4-3 for the Braves after 5th inning rallies by both teams and Alomar scoring on a Dave Winfield single in the 8th. The Jays entered the ninth trailing by the one run Reilly had cost them. After a walk to Derek Bell, Toronto reserve infielder Ed Sprague drilled a pitch from Braves closer Jeff Reardon, then baseball's all-time saves leader, to left for a two-run homer. The play was portentously called by Blue Jays announcer Tom "Pops" Cheek, who infamously said "Watch him hit a homer" during Sprague's at bat. Atlanta tried to rally in the ninth, bringing MVP candidate Terry Pendleton to the plate with two on and two out. Pendleton had led the majors with a .391 average with runners in scoring position and two out. However, he popped out to Jays third baseman Kelly Gruber to seal the victory for Toronto. Gruber then angered Braves fans and players by mocking the "Tomahawk Chop" as he left the field.Major League Baseball Presents: 1992 World Series. Dir. Mike Kostel, Rich Domich. Perf. Len Carlou, Tim McCarver, Sean McDonough. Videocasette, DVD. Major League Baseball Productions, QVideo, 1992, 2002. Game 3 Tuesday, October 20, 1992 at SkyDome in Toronto, Ontario Before this game, the U.S. Marine Corps Color Guard offered to hoist the Canadian flag once more in order to make amends for the inverted flag incident of Game 2. Likewise, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police flew the flag of the United States. As Game 3 moved across the border (for the first Canadian Classic) the question still remained of the Blue Jays' ballpark benefit. Before this series, the Blue Jays had previously only gone 3-6 in the postseason in their home park. In the fourth inning, fans saw one of the greatest catches in baseball history. Devon White made a sensational backhanded grab (against the 400-foot sign) off a David Justice blast with Deion Sanders and Terry Pendleton on base. The snag nearly resulted in a triple play as Pendleton passed Sanders on the base paths for an automatic out but second base umpire Bob Davidson (the same controversial umpire of the 2006 World Baseball Classic) ruled Sanders safe in a rundown by Kelly Gruber despite several replays showing that Gruber had indeed tagged Sanders. The first ever World Series run scored in Canada came via a solo home run by Joe Carter in the fourth inning. The Braves would tie the game and go ahead in the top of the eighth on a base hit by Lonnie Smith, but the Blue Jays answered right back with a solo home run by Gruber in the bottom half. The Blue Jays won the game in the bottom of the ninth thanks to a single by Candy Maldonado off of Jeff Reardon, who had surrendered the go-ahead run for the second consecutive game and did not pitch again in the rest of the series. Roberto Alomar scored the winning run and much like his teammate Gruber had the previous game Tomahawk Chopped to celebrate the win. The game was also marked by the first World Series managerial ejection since 1985, when Atlanta's Bobby Cox threw a batting helmet out of the Braves' dugout to protest a ninth-inning strikeout of Jeff Blauser. While this wasn't the last World Series ejection, Cox remains the last manager to be ejected in the World Series (having been ejected in Game 6 of the 1996 World Series for arguing a call on the bases) Major League Baseball Presents: 1992 World Series. Dir. MIke Kostel, Rich Domich. Perf. Len Carlou, Tim McCarver, Sean McDonough. Videocasette, DVD. Major League Baseball Productions, QVideo, 1992, 2002.. This was the first game in any World Series to be played outside the United States. Game 4 Wednesday, October 21, 1992 at SkyDome in Toronto, Ontario This game would mark Jimmy Key's final start as a Blue Jay. Key, a starter during the regular season was relegated to the bullpen during the playoffs and three innings of relief. After giving up a lead-off single to Otis Nixon in the first inning, Key picked Nixon off first base and then proceeded to only giving three hits over seven innings. Pat Borders put the Jays up with a third inning home run. In the bottom of the seventh, the Blue Jays went up 2-0 as Kelly Gruber scored on an RBI single by Devon White. The Braves would score one run in the top of the eighth inning. However, with two runners on in scoring position and two out, Key would be relieved by Duane Ward, who would get out of the inning. Henke relieved Ward and attained the save. Game 5 Thursday, October 22, 1992 at SkyDome in Toronto, Ontario This was Jack Morris' second start of the World Series and would also be his second loss. The Braves third, fourth and fifth batters of the batting order were under a dubious statistic: none of them attained an extra-base hit in the previous four games. This would stand until Terry Pendleton hit an RBI double against Morris in the first inning, bringing home Otis Nixon, who had, himself, doubled earlier in the inning. Justice would hit a home run in the top of the fourth inning to put the Braves up 2-1 for his first extra-base hit of the '92 World Series. However, Pat Borders would tie the game in the bottom of the inning on his second RBI single of the evening. In the fifth inning, the Braves would score five runs, capped by a grand slam home run by Lonnie Smith against Morris. The Blue Jays would not recover, and Smith ended any hopes of the World Series being decided on Canadian ground (which would take place the year after when the Jays won in 1993). Game 6 Saturday, October 24, 1992 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta's Steve Avery and Toronto's David Cone were the starters in this game. Because Avery was a left-handed pitcher, the Blue Jays started Joe Carter at first base instead of John Olerud. As a result, Dave Winfield was placed in right field to make up for Carter's move to first base. Tied at 1-1 early in the game, Candy Maldonado hit a home run in the top of the fourth to put the Jays up 2-1. Roberto Alomar made a memorable play on a Jeff Blauser ground ball: the ball was grounded to the far right of Roberto Alomar, the second baseman; Alomar dove for the ball and recorded the out at first after a quick throw from the knees. After a good defensive game by both teams, the score remained 2-1 in favor of the Blue Jays heading into the bottom of the ninth inning, with Tom Henke again called upon for the save (with the Blue Jays not having blown a postseason save in 1992 or having given up an earned run the entire postseason). Blauser led off the Braves' ninth inning with a single, and moved to second base after a sacrifice bunt by Damon Berryhill. Lonnie Smith came up next as a pinch hitter for Mark Lemke. Henke, after being ahead of Smith 0-2, walked him to bring up Francisco Cabrera, the hero of the NLCS just a week prior. Cabrera hit a high line drive to left field, but Maldonado jumped to catch it just before it went over his head. That left the Braves with one final out to stave off elimination, with Otis Nixon batting. Henke got two early strikes on Nixon, but on the next pitch Nixon slapped a hit to left field, scoring Blauser after an errant throw by Maldonado went "over everything" (as Sean McDonough said in the TV broadcast). Henke managed to escape further damage as Ron Gant flew out to Devon White in center field, leaving the game tied and headed to extra innings. Both teams failed to score in the tenth inning as Henke and Jimmy Key for the Blue Jays and Charlie Leibrandt for the Braves held their opponents in check. That set the stage for the top of the eleventh inning. With one out, White was hit by a Leibrandt pitch and Alomar singled to put two runners on base for the Blue Jays. With Joe Carter coming up, many in the ballpark (including CBS' Tim McCarver) thought that Bobby Cox would remove Leibrandt from the game in favor of Game 2 and 3 goat Jeff Reardon, but Cox stayed with Leibrandt and Carter flew out to shallow center field, not allowing the runners to advance. With two outs Dave Winfield, who had not had a very good World Series and who also had never gotten an extra base hit in the World Series, came through with a two run double that gave the Blue Jays a 4-2 lead. It was the second consecutive year that Leibrandt had allowed the go-ahead run in Game 6 of the World Series in the 11th inning (in the 1991 World Series, he gave up a game winning solo home run to Kirby Puckett). With his team in the lead, Key returned to the mound to start the 11th. Blauser got on base once more with a base hit to left field, just as he started off the bottom of the ninth inning. Berryhill then hit a ground ball that usually sure-handed shortstop Alfredo Griffin booted (due to an erratic hop off the dirt), allowing Blauser to advance to third. Pitcher John Smoltz replaced Berryhill as a pinch runner at first. The next play saw Rafael Belliard bunt to move Smoltz up to second, but Blauser did not attempt to score. Blauser did manage to score on the next play, a Brian Hunter groundout to Carter at first, but the Braves were once again down to their final out with Nixon coming to the plate to try and tie the game. A pitching change was made, as Mike Timlin was called on to face Nixon. After fouling off the first pitch, Nixon bunted. Timlin fielded the ball, and threw it to Carter to record the final out. Carter initially looked to keep the ball but gave it up to Timlin who pleaded to Carter for the ball saying it was "his World Series save." Carter would eventually have possession of the game-winning ball of the 1993 World Series: his Series-ending home run ball. Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston became the first African American manager to win a World Series. American League president Dr. Bobby Brown presented the World Series Trophy in the place of the commissioner. Just a month earlier, Fay Vincent was forced to resign and was replaced by Bud Selig (then owner of the Milwaukee Brewers) on what was originally perceived to be an "interim basis." Dr. Brown also presented the Blue Jays the trophy in 1993. Composite Box 1992 World Series (4-2): Toronto Blue Jays (A.L.) over Atlanta Braves (N.L.) |}} Records *At 41 years of age, Dave Winfield became the oldest player to hit an extra base hit in the World Series.Great Baseball Feats, Facts and Figures, 2008 Edition, p.367, David Nemec and Scott Flatow, A Signet Book, Penguin Group, New York, NY, ISBN 978-0-451-22363-0 Broadcasting *At 30 years of age, CBS' Sean McDonough became the youngest man to call all nine innings and games of a World Series (while serving as a full network television employee). Although Vin Scully and Al Michaels were several years younger when they called their first World Series, they were products of the then broadcasting policy of announcers representing the participating teams (a process that ended following the 1976 World Series). McDonough's record would subsequently be broken by FOX's Joe Buck, who at 27 years of age, called the 1996 World Series. McDonough replaced Joe Buck's father, Jack, as CBS' lead play-by-play man. Quotes of the Series Notes References * External links * 1992 World Series by Baseball Almanac * History of the World Series - 1992 * 1992 NLCS|Game 7 * 1992 Toronto Blue Jays *1992 Atlanta Braves 1992 World Series World Series Category:Toronto Blue Jays Category:Atlanta Braves World Series